1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to phonograph record players, and more particularly is directed to an improved control mechanism for a phonograph record player which permits the user to manually initiate a play operation or to select a desired number of automatically repeated play operations.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An automatic phonograph record player is known in which, upon actuation of a start lever or the like, a tone arm is led-in or moved from a rest position outside the perimeter of a turntable to a selected set-down position on a phonograph record supported by the turntable for the commencement of a play operation and, upon completion of the play operation, that is, when the tone arm attains an inner position corresponding to the engagement of the pickup stylus in the usual final non-recorded groove portion of the phonograph record, the tone arm is automatically led-out or returned to its rest position and the operation of the record player is terminated. With the foregoing automatic record player, only a single play operation is obtained upon actuation of the start lever, that is, a plurality of successive play operations or repreated reproduction of a phonograph record cannot be automatically obtained.
A phonograph record player has also been provided with an auto-repeat function, and in which the record player repeatedly plays or reproduces the same phonograph record until the user actuates a stop or reject lever. However, such phonograph record player does not permit the user to preselect a desired number of repeated play operations.
Furthermore, a phonograph record player has been proposed, for example, as disclosed in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 3,827,697, in which the number of repeated play operations can be preset to a desired value. More particularly, in the last mentioned existing phonograph record player, an index wheel is manually set to a position corresponding to a desired number of repeated play operations and, thereafter, at the end of each play operation, a control mechanism effects the return or lead-out movement of the tone arm to its rest position followed automatically by a lead-in movement of the tone arm to the selected set-down position until, at the completion of the final play operation, the tone arm is locked or retained in its rest position. However, in the case of such record player, it is not possible to effect manual operation thereof, that is, to manually move the tone arm from its rest position to any desired set-down position on the record, for example, as when it is desired to reproduce only a portion of the sound recorded on the record. Furthermore, if it is desired to change the number of repeated play operations preset by manual positioning of the index wheel, the latter can be turned only in one direction which decreases the facility with which the record player can be selectively controlled.